where you might have some black belts in with higher Kyu grades.
Another option if you have time in your Dojo is to have people up in groups. Like for example, have the lower Kyu grades sit down and watch the seniors grades do their Kata and
then say this is how I want it done. And this works quite well because the intermediate students aspire to this and it also pushes the senior grades to be better.
But just on a different note, I think where we
tend to miss out is that the instructors themselves should have their own students pushing
them. Your objective as an instructor is to push
your students to a higher level, that’s even better than you are. But you shouldn’t be complacent and think ‘I don’t have to train’. You should
make provision for your own training as well.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking training and
teaching is the same thing, because it isn’t. I
think even from Brown belt level you should be
doing your own self training at least once a
week.
For anyone who is really serious, even with beginners, I think back to when I first started and I
was just so amazed at all the different things there were to learn. I was reading books, going to other Dojo’s and training with guys from other styles and without getting outside of
your comfort zone it’s quite easy to become almost tunnel vision like. Eventually you end up
being like a big fish in a little pond.
In a black belt only group. Some countries like England
for instance have a large number of 6th Dan and say at
the other end of the room you have a large number of
Shodans, do you have trouble covering the senior curriculum without losing the lower Black Belts to other
things?
Not necessarily, No. Because most of the seniors usually don’t mind. See with Shodan’s
and Nidan’s you can still cover all the various forms of Kumite, contact training, pad work,
Hojo Undo. The only thing you probably couldn’t cover is Kata’s above Seipai. You only
have Kururunfa, Sesan & Suparimpei left after that and that’s only three Kata’s. Nidan’s
and even Shodan’s should be fine to practice Tensho, not to mention Sanchin and turning
Sanchin.
But if you look at most courses or seminars, it is usually split into grades sessions, so
you’re really not teaching the whole group at once anyway. If you have a large amount of
seniors you can organise more groups.